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Twenty-twentywhat?
Welcome to your second pandemic summer the twenty-first YeahWrite Super Challenge! It’s fitting that it’s in 2021, but we didn’t cleverly plan for that or anything, and anyway it’s also 5781 and 1442. Here at YeahWrite we’ve been loving the Super Challenges as a way to escape, just for a little while, the flood of daily events that we have to keep track of: homeschooling, mask mandates, statistics (so many statistics) and current events are important to know about, but they’re not really emotionally fulfilling. Not the way a well-written essay is. There’s just something about creative nonfiction, and nonfiction in general, that keeps drawing us (and you!) back: that personal connection to a life that’s not your own, the urgency of shared ideas, the infinite potential for these David-Foster-Wallace-esque three-item lists. If you want one piece of writing advice, on me, use them sparingly but to good effect. There, I just saved you the cost of a writing class.
You know what else is about money? PRIZES. Now that we’ve tallied the entries and split the costs, here’s what you’re playing for:
- 1st prize: $250
- 2nd prize: $175
- 3rd prize: $125
This round you can write a personal or persuasive essay, wherever the prompt takes you. So let’s talk about those:
- personal essays: the mostly-true stories of your life. Make sure that you center the prompt, although the entire essay doesn’t have to be about the prompt. For example, if the prompt were horses, you could write about your first horse, about how much you wanted a horse, about a plastic toy horse, or about your summer camp experience in the Rockies. What you shouldn’t do is write about a road trip your family took and casually mention that you drove past a horse in Nebraska along the way.
- persuasive essays. A persuasive essay utilizes logic and reason to show that one idea or position is more legitimate than another. It attempts to persuade a reader to adopt the writer’s point of view on the topic. The argument must always use sound reasoning and solid evidence. It can do this by stating facts, giving logical reasons, using examples, and quoting experts. It can also utilize emotion effectively, but it should not depend on emotional appeal or require the reader to find the writer sympathetic in order to make its point. We’ll be judging these essays on how thoroughly and convincingly the author makes their stand. The judges don’t have to agree with the answer, but the answer will need to be supported by more than my mom’s old standby of “because I said so.”
Note: If you choose to use citations or footnotes to credit your sources (and you should credit your sources, if applicable), remember that those will count towards your overall word limit. You are free to use hyperlinks to refer to external material, but your essay must stand on its own merit. That is, it can’t be necessary to read the outside material to understand the point you’re making. (Unless you want us to count every word in the outside material which, trust us, you don’t.)
Now that that’s cleared up, let’s get to the assignments:
Group 1
Something [concrete] you wish you’d learned before they were gone.
Whether it’s a recipe from a grandparent you never met, daisy chains from a friend who moved away, or a sewing project you were going to do with someone who turned out to be unhealthy to have in your life, we want to know about the skills or tasks you wish you’d been taught by someone who isn’t in your life now. This should be someone with a personal connection to you – no fair wanting to learn speechwriting from Winston Churchill, unless he’s your actual granddad – but they don’t have to be dead to be gone. The something you wish you’d learned must be an actual skill or craft or task: no life lessons or meaningful concepts, sorry. We’re not looking for a grandmother who taught you to stop and smell the roses, we’re looking for one who had a rose garden like the one you’re trying to grow now.
Group 2
A near miss
We’re looking for your almosts, positive or negative. Did you almost die in a car wreck? Did you almost get into the State Spelling Bee? Give us your sweet, your bitter, and your bittersweet. But also give us a content warning where appropriate, you know? Remember: the thing you’re writing about didn’t happen, but could have, almost.
Group 3
Something you quit before you were finished
Did you stop taking piano lessons? Leave university without a degree? Abandon a half-knitted sweater? Tell us about it. We want to know what, and why, and how. Remember: this should be a “finishable” sort of thing (or as finishable as something like ballet lessons are, with the goal being something like “get as good as you can be”) or a habit that would generally be considered positive, not a job or a relationship or a bad habit. We’re not looking for quitting biting your nails or quitting working for Mr. Jones, we want to hear about your abandoned former goals.
Wait, wait, there’s more!
Don’t post your story anywhere on the Internet until after our judges are done and you get your feedback! But if you want to talk up the competition or live-tweet your writing process, use the hashtag #YWsuper. Just remember not to include identifying details about which story is yours!
Your essays are due Sunday at 10pm US Eastern Time. Remember to check the rules for formatting, including all those fiddly details like title page, font, and filename. Don’t get disqualified on a technicality! We know it seems really useless at times, but all those rules have a purpose, from helping get your file where it needs to be to making sure you’re read anonymously and fairly.
Your title page should include: title, group number, prompt, and any applicable content warning. Don’t put your title page in a fancy font, you don’t have to underline anything or make it pretty. We just want the information.
Email your questions to superchallenge@yeahwrite.me or post your question in the private (judge-free) Super Challenge Discord channel—we will not be reviewing other email addresses or social media for your questions over the weekend and we want to make sure you get the answers you need! (Also, we don’t want you to accidentally email your questions to a judge; it’s happened! Don’t be that guy!)
You’ll receive your feedback on Wednesday, August 25, and we’ll announce who’s moving on to the next round that day at noon US Eastern Time.
We hope you have as much fun with the prompts as we had picking them out. Good luck, and good writing!
About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
